Discernment group

[Marieteresa]

Hey guys,

I am thinking about starting a discernment group for women in my diocese and am needing suggestions how to go about doing this. The reason why I wanting to do this is because I feel like alot of the girls here are been left out and aren't being exposed to good and holy religious orders whom follow all the church teachings. Most of the sisters in our diocese and in our state (from my research) do not wear any type of religious habit nor want to wear a habit. I just want to try and reach out to other girls whom are going through the same discernment journey. Our diocese only offers a discernment group for young men discerning their vocation to the priesthood. Which I think is becoming the norm in alot of places, sad to say. Any input on how to do this would be great.

In Jesus, Our Blessed Mother and Joseph,
S. Brooks

[catholicflower]

S.Brooks- what an inspiring idea! My diocese has a rather good prgram for high school boys and girls also older men and women. They all do some great activities (nun runs are the best!) This is the link to the women's discernment group: [url="http://www.arlingtondiocese.org/offices/vocations/disc-women.html"]arlington's women discernement group[/url]. Hope this helps!
God bless
Jackie

[Marieteresa]

[quote name='catholicflower' date='Jun 11 2005, 05:06 PM']S.Brooks- what an inspiring idea! My diocese has a rather good prgram for high school  boys and girls also older men and women. They all do some great activities (nun runs are the best!) This is the link to the women's discernment group: [url="http://www.arlingtondiocese.org/offices/vocations/disc-women.html"]arlington's women discernement group[/url]. Hope this helps!
God bless
Jackie
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Hey Jackie,
I just want to thank you for giving me those wonderful suggestions on how to go about doing this! Thank you so much you have really helped me. It seems like the arlington diocese has a great discernment group and I would love to start something like that. But right now I am going to seriously pray about this to see if its the Lords will for me to do this. I had been thinking about starting small like at my parish but we will have to see. Again thank you so much for your suggestions

In Jesus, Our Blessed Mother and Joseph,
S. Brooks

[thepiaheart]

I wanted to revive this thread.

Does anyone participate in a discernment group (especially one that isn't also a household/living arrangement)? What has worked and what hasn't? I'm interested in starting one at my university, but I've no idea where to begin. Insight would be most appreciated.

 

What kinds of activities do you do? Is there a priest or a sister who is regularly involved/the group's "spiritual mentor"? How much time does it require daily, etc.?

 

Many thanks!

[Gabriela]

Are you studying archaeology?

[littlesister]

God bless your desires.  Discernment groups can be such a support. Depending on your situation, I'd suggest to start by contacting your Vocations Office or Campus Ministry if there is one..  They might be very happy to see that someone is interested in religious life and be able to point you to someone to help you.  It could be harder to keep something like that going than it is to get it started if there isn't someone "official" and some kind of structure behind you. 

 

And yes, Nun Runs are great!  We just had another wonderful group through here, accompanied by a couple and two priests from their parish.

 

PM if we can do anything for either of you.  We've been through several dioceses and all kinds of models for discernment groups, from adoration and Lectio Divina to service. 

[TheresaThoma]

I was part of one for a while. We had the vocation director from a local community be our leader (and she would always bring a sister or two with her). The first few meetings were more of a question and answer format, or Sister would have a reflection for us. Things kind of evolved from there. If I remember correctly we met once every other week, so not a huge commitment but enough to provide support.

[Benedictus]

I was a member of a vocations group, and still sometimes pop along, in England. It was started by a couple of women initially, and was only for women at that time. I don't think there was anything of this nature before so there was a need. A few of the women were actually interested in founding a community, and one had been a religious for a period of time in the past. (They did this and now there are three professed sisters). Anyway, the group slowly expanded to include men as well and the diocese offered to do a joint venture with them -  a partnership was setup between one of the new sisters and the diocese vocations director. They now schedule monthly meetups that people can attend. They invite a different speaker each time to talk about a specific aspect of vocation. So they may have contemplative sisters, active sisters, secular priests, married couples etc come along. I guess some months won't appeal to everyone but they do get between 25 and 40 people attending depending on the session. They try and help people work out what their vocation is on that basic, but often confusing, level. But I guess another group may do it differently. 

I'd say set it up in exactly the way you, and then the people who join with you, see fit. You could have a narrow objective or a wider one, depends what you feel would be most beneficial. You could ask other parishes in your diocese to include something about it in their newsletter or notices, with an email or something to contact if individuals are interested. Once you get one or two interested you can at least go for coffee or something to talk on a regular basis and expand from there. It maybe easier if you plan to setup a group connected to a cathedral or a campus ministry, but its up to you really. 

 

[domenica_therese]

I wanted to revive this thread.

Does anyone participate in a discernment group (especially one that isn't also a household/living arrangement)? What has worked and what hasn't? I'm interested in starting one at my university, but I've no idea where to begin. Insight would be most appreciated.

 

What kinds of activities do you do? Is there a priest or a sister who is regularly involved/the group's "spiritual mentor"? How much time does it require daily, etc.?

 

Many thanks!

 

I'm helping spear-head the starting of one of these at my University.  We don't have any sort of household system at my school. We're under the umbrella of Campus Ministry but we're entirely student run (I'm a rising senior). I want our existence to be a very public matter, but who's in it won't.  We're also trying to be chill and a resource for any young woman discerning, even if she feels more called to marriage. I don't want it to be like "You go to this group so you're definitely going to be a nun."  We had an interest meeting last semester and had them fill out this anonymous survey thing about what they were looking for, and the results were really helpful to us. I would be happy to share the form I made up, but I won't post it publicly.

 

As far as meetings we're thinking bi-monthly, alternating between book study and guest visitor.

Edited July 31, 2013 by domenica_therese